


Handmade With Love

by loopedlikewool



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017)
Genre: Cass Appreciation Day, F/F, Fluff, crafting, introspective fluff, magical mishaps, obscure textile references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2019-07-20 21:37:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16146029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loopedlikewool/pseuds/loopedlikewool
Summary: Mildred's jumper is witchier than expected. Witches. Knitting. Fluff.I have no idea, I tried to write a fic for cassiopeiasara, and this weird fluff came out.





	Handmade With Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cassiopeiasara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassiopeiasara/gifts).



> This isn't the fic I tried to write for today, but this is the one that happened, so I hope it actually works. It's completely unbeta-ed, so any mistakes or strangeness is my own.

It had started, of course, with Mildred Hubble. In light of the girls' good behaviour (and going over a month without putting the school or themselves into mortal peril) the students had been rewarded with a free dress day for their field trip to the nearby witching village of Warthford.

Mildred had arrived at breakfast that morning wearing a knitted jumper that somehow managed to repel all food like a pair of magnets with the same polarity. This quickly escalated to a significant portion of the second-year table _wearing_ more of their breakfast than had been consumed. Leaving Dimity and Algernon to supervise the cleanup, Ada and Hecate transferred to the Headmistress' office to deal with Ethel, who had started the argument, Enid, who had started the food fight, and Mildred, who had somehow managed to stand at the epicenter without a drop of porridge on her person.

 

After the usual round of detentions had been handed out, Hecate had come to the startling realization that Mildred's patterned jumper was covered in magical runes, specifically the ones that were also embroidered on her Great-Aunt Hephzibah's prized antique tablecloth that had been in the Hardbroom family since the 18th century.

Mildred had insisted that her Gran had knit her jumper, which had never been magical before, and had offered as proof to show them the half-finished replica her mum was making in a larger size. Hecate had explained that Mildred's magical ancestors likely had owned a similar tablecloth before they lost their magic and their descendants apparently gravitated towards the design long after they'd forgotten what it meant. Ethel sneered that only a Hubble could turn an heirloom into a catastrophe. Ada, seeing the horror flutter across her deputy's face at the idea of experiencing this morning on repeat, had offered Mildred a book, for her mother, with more appropriate spells for knitted jumpers, before shooing all three girls back to the dining hall to fix their mess before it was time to leave.

 

Ada had expected the conversation to have ended there, but it seemed she had vastly underestimated Mildred Hubble's interest in the topic. She and Hecate had just sat down to tea at their favorite little shop in Warthford, when Mildred popped up at the edge of their table, knitting book in hand, full of questions.

Had Miss Cackle's mum knit the jumper she was wearing? (Yes.) Do a lot of witches knit? Do you? (Yes, to both.) Can you knit _any_ spell into a jumper? (Theoretically, but the vast majority are ill-suited and would end quite poorly, so do not go off experimenting. Have I made myself clear Mildred Hubble?)

It was then that Mildred turned to the potions mistress and asked what kind of spells her mum used to knit into her jumpers. Ada winced as Hecate went stiff and rigidly tried to explain that her mother had been far too ill to knit anything when she was small, and that actually, she'd never gotten around to learning the skill herself, without having to explain that yes, cancer was a problem that witches hadn't quite solved either. Even after she had snapped at the girl to rejoin her friends and stop her incessant line of questions, Hecate had been melancholy for the rest of the day.

 

Which is how Ada found herself in a yarn shop, bypassing all of the cozy jumper wool she loves for a hundred and fifty grams of fae-spun cobweb silk that's more suited to her... friend? Lover? Partner? They hadn't quite ever gotten around to defining the closeness that they had effortlessly drifted into over the years, but Ada desperately wanted to make something worthy of the woman who probably knew she was the love of Ada's life.

And she wanted it to be a surprise, which was going to be the tricky part, as there were precious few minutes in her day where Hecate wasn't already present, or likely to transfer to her at any moment with a new Hubble-shaped disaster. But she resolved to try. In her enthusiasm to take her find to the counter and pay, she completely missed a pair of brown braids slip into the shop behind her.

 

By the time Hecate was making her rounds on the first night of the next term, Ada had managed to complete both the center and border on her secret project, filling both with motifs of protection and love. She was now flipping through the pages of her mother's old stitch book, looking for just the right edging, as she was in a bit of a hurry to finish her project by her self-imposed deadline of Hecate's birthday.

Right on schedule, Hecate knocked on the door and Ada marked her place before sending her book into vanishment for safe-keeping. At her signal, Hecate transferred into the room, staring at the object in her hands. The dear woman had taken to carrying around a clipboard all summer for no further reason than to maintain the pretense that Ada's project remained a surprise. Ada smiled at her fondly, only to be met with wet eyes and a wobble at the corner of her lips.

 

 "What’s happened, my dear?" Ada asked, suddenly on edge.

Hecate snorted to cover a sniffle. "Mildred Hubble's happened," she replied softly, holding out the black and green striped blob in her hands. "I think it was originally supposed to be a hat, but she and Maud agreed that it will probably make a much nicer cat bed."

Ada's heart melted and she didn't even mind that her pupil had scooped her on the gift. "I'm sure Morgana will love it." She opened her arms, into which Hecate happily melted. She kissed her hairline as Hecate folded herself into her lap, burying her face in the crook of Ada's neck and accepting all the affection she couldn't handle from her students. _Almost as much,_ Ada thought _as I love you._


End file.
